Headache (symptoms)

Headache - is the most common, most bothered and wearied our state a kind of pain. Entire books have been written about it. Its range is very wide. Most of us experience a slight headache when we are concerned, hungry, tired, suffer from constipation, straining your eyes too long. We can complain about it after it went to the dentist, after a long flight on an airplane, or when we are cold, and we drank. There is, however, another type of pain - sudden, unexplained, new. It begins with no apparent cause, and does not want to break off the end or if it returns again. It's a pain that bothers. Let's examine the most likely explanation for the headache.

See also recipes for the treatment of headache .

Tension-type headache

Tension and migraine pain constitute 90% of all headaches. The most common of the two is a tension headache, which can be identified by the following characteristics: pain is usually felt most strongly in the head and in the neck and rarely one-sided; it can last for weeks or even months, with only very short periods of respite, although its strength can vary; bouts begin at any time of the day (there are other types of pain, as you'll see that start mostly at night or when you wake up in the morning); Patients usually describe the feeling "tight bandage", compressing, but not pulsating; she never accompanied by fever. If patients are sincere with your doctor, when such pain they recognized that they had personal problems and they live in constant stress, under stress.

Headache migraine

The pain of migraine is very different characteristics. Here is a typical scenario: there precedes the period (minutes or even hours, before you start the pain itself), during which the patient may feel tired or depressed, or have a visual impairment or other neurologic problems - the spark in the eyes, loss of peripheral vision, temporarily impaired ability to read or even talk.

Migraine is played on one side of the head, and every patient is almost always one and the same party. Pain is pulsating in nature, usually begins in the morning and gradually, after 30 minutes - 1 hour, increases. Seizures may occur every few days or weeks; months of not talking. They continue for several hours, but is rarely longer than a day or two. Migraines can be triggered by alcohol or certain foods, such as chocolate. They often occur after stress, when you are relaxed. Migraines are often accompanied by nausea and vomiting and relieved sleep.

If the pain is felt in one place

Headache, strapped into one place, is a type of migraine. It occurs mainly in men, while typical migraines tend to affect women, especially in violation of the mitral valve of the heart, and disappear after menopause. Such pain, strapped into one place, is often felt behind the eyes, occurs suddenly, without warning, reaching a maximum of 5 - 10 minutes and disappears in less than an hour. It is often triggered by alcohol. Sleep with her does not help. In fact, such a pain wakes you up. It happens several times a day for a week and then stopped.

Headache in brain tumors

Pain caused by brain tumor, also has specific features.

She does not hesitate in its intensity, but it is becoming stronger and stronger with time. It is stronger in the morning. It is enhanced by movement, stress, coughing, sneezing, lifting heavy objects and weakened in the supine position. The pain is often accompanied by nausea and vomiting.

The headache of temporal arteritis

There is a serious kind of pain, which is mainly in elderly people suffering from temporal arteritis - inflammation of the arteries of the temporal region. These patients difficult to chew, have low vision, pain observed in other parts of the body, as well as fever and weight loss. However, the most distinctive symptom is headache. It lasts for days or weeks on one side of the head, and so narrowly localized, you can specify where your finger. The diagnosis of the disease must be confirmed by a biopsy of the affected artery. If you do not immediately begin treatment with high doses of steroid hormones can happen stroke or blindness occur.

Headache from the common cold

A common cause of this pain is an inflammation of the paranasal sinuses, so often that they are sometimes suspected of it, even when they are innocent.

How can you recognize a real headache due to sinusitis?

• It usually starts during or after severe hypothermia;
• There is a deep nasopharyngeal runny nose;
• It is localized to any one place or person's head and played very fast;
• The pain is stronger in the morning, because mucus was not possible to completely drain;
• It is amplified by coughing, sneezing and sudden movements of the head;
• The pain of sinusitis is enhanced by alcohol, when sudden temperature changes and, in winter, during the transition from a warm room into the cold.

Other headaches

There are other, less common causes of pain in the head.

Trigeminal neuralgia (known as a painful tic). Developed with the inflammation of one of the major nerves of the face. There is mostly elderly people who experience a sharp shooting pain that lasts only a few seconds. Brushing teeth, chewing and even touching a sensitive spot on the face can trigger bouts of pain.

Fever with any disease can cause pain in the head.

Head injuries are a common cause of headaches.

In older people, even a slight bump on the head can cause internal bleeding. The accumulated blood, called a subdural hematoma, compresses the brain, and this leads to pain, as well as to changes in behavior. The diagnosis is confirmed by computed tomography scan or magnetic resonance examination.

Various vision problems, from improper prescription for glasses to glaucoma (increased intraocular pressure), can give a headache.

Medication can also cause pain in the head. In my cardiology practice, the main violators of this kind are nitroglycerin and related drugs (isosorbide dinitrate-). These substances not only expand the arteries of the heart, for which they were prescribed for angina pectoris, but also - vessels on the head, which causes pain. If you have been taking any new drug, whether it be an antibiotic, hormones or something from the heart, and you were such a pain in the first place think about medicine.

High blood pressure can cause a throbbing headache, which is usually localized in the head and is particularly evident when you wake up in the morning.

Sudden worsening eyesight diffuse headache that lasts, particularly pain, followed by stiffness of the neck, it suggests the possibility of a brain hemorrhage. Usually it is a consequence of an artery rupture in young people, if the wall were inherently weak. In others, especially high blood pressure, a blood vessel bursts, since it can not withstand the high pressure unrelenting, reveals itself continuously.

Symptom: Headache

If you have severe headache, without any particular reason, long-term, accompanied by fever, nausea, vomiting and neck stiffness, is probably meningitis, you need to show your doctor as soon as possible.